Sudara's children; fifty swords

Blackthorne, who had forgotten Fujiko, makes her show him her burns; they are healing well, and with the dictionary between them they truly talk for the first time. Mariko meets him in the donjon forecourt, evasive; their journey ended at First Bridge. Toranaga, still playing the sulking invalid, dismisses him, then wrings from Mariko every word of Buntaro's treason. Chano, Naga's peasant mother, serves cha. Sudara and the Lady Genjiko, summoned, deny everything; Toranaga orders them to kill their four children, now, and Sudara goes. He returns soaked: the children are already in Toranaga's quarters. The test passed, the grandchildren run into his arms. At midnight fifty generals surrender their swords for a swordless conference; General Kiyoshio indicts Toranaga for treason against bushido and is sent to seppuku, the counsellor Isamu and the frightened Numata after him. "You are no longer my heir," Toranaga tells Sudara, and climbs the tower alone, his chest aching, doom in the sky.

A chapter of tests: Fujiko's burns, Sudara's children, the fifty swordless generals. Clavell makes Toranaga's cruelty and his sentiment the same instrument, the children he orders killed running into his arms. Kiyoshio's indictment for treason against bushido is the one voice that calls the surrender what it looks like.